Linda Queally of Glassell Park, Los Angeles on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Linda Queally and have shared our conversation below.

Linda, a huge thanks to you for investing the time to share your wisdom with those who are seeking it. We think it’s so important for us to share stories with our neighbors, friends and community because knowledge multiples when we share with each other. Let’s jump in: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I think it’s a bit of both! But before we dive in, I’d like to thank you so very much for having me back. It’s always such an honor to share my journey with you. I continue to walk my own unique path, though at times it may appear more like wandering. I love to travel, but I also venture deeply within, and my paintings mirror that dual exploration. Be it with figures or quiet landscapes, I return again and again to water, which for me is love, consciousness, and reflection. In my most recent work, swimming pools become sanctuaries, where both I and the viewer are invited to pause and listen. In that stillness, the wandering and the path come together.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m a Los Angeles based Mixed Media Artist, working with water media in my vibrant mystical paintings, and with pearls and mixed metals in my simple, elegant jewelry designs.

When we last connected in late 2023, I had just completed a series of Mermaid and Merman paintings. At that time, my goals were to collaborate on a spiritual podcast about art and channeling, and to bring all of those pieces together in a gallery setting. Magically, I accomplished both. In March 2024, I was featured in Episode 88 of Omar Angulo’s “In a Good Way” Podcast. And then less than a year later, in January 2025, I had the honor of showing twenty-five of my paintings alongside the works of Robin M. Cohen and Victor Picou, in “There Will Be Color” at the Betsy Lueke Creative Arts Center in Burbank. I remain so grateful for those experiences.

Now, in my newest series of paintings, I’ve returned to the pool, this time with mostly large acrylic works on canvas, inspired by places I have felt particularly connected to. While working on these watery spaces, I find myself diving back into my own subconscious, integrating the messages delivered to me by the water spirits of my previous series. These new pieces extend an invitation to the viewer as well, to sit, contemplate, and see what the water may reflect back to them. I would love the opportunity to show these luminous new pool pieces together, and that’s my next goal.

I’m also excited to let you know that my latest self-portrait will be included in the upcoming “Enter the Goddesses 3” show opening October 5, 2025, 1-4pm at “The Makery” in Downtown Los Angeles. Channeling my own inner goddess in this piece, it’s a delight to have her step “Into the Light”, just like her title, at this beautiful event.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What was your earliest memory of feeling powerful?
The first time I remember really stepping into my power was when I was in my early twenties. I needed a car, and my boyfriend at the time suggested I check out the new 5 Speed Honda Civic Hatchback. That idea went against just about everything I’d been taught growing up: don’t buy foreign, don’t buy new, and don’t take out a loan. And to top it off, I didn’t even know how to drive a stick! But I listened to my heart and bought the car anyway, special ordering it in a warm coppery brown. When the car arrived, I was smitten. My boyfriend drove it off the lot for me, taught me to use a manual shift that night, and I drove it to work all by myself the next morning! I loved that car so much. It became my keys to freedom, and it wasn’t long before it carried me out of the Midwest and into Los Angeles, the place I’ve loved from the start and continue to call home to very this day, over forty years later.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
The answer to this question came to me in a most interesting way. The other night I dreamed I was slogging through liquid concrete up to my knees. Then upon waking, I started scrolling, and found myself mesmerized by skydivers that had somehow found their way onto my feed. Gleefully sliding off the top of hot air balloons, swinging from propeller planes and helicopters, doing somersaults and then plunging towards the earth, they all had one thing in common. They had the biggest grins on their faces. I literally wept at the beauty of that. I think I was being sent the same message I would say to young Linda in her twenties.

I’d give her a big hug and tell her how proud I was of her. I would let her know that stepping into her power the day she bought that Honda Civic was just the first of many times in her life where she would leap, in a way unpopular to others, that made perfect sense to her. By following her inner voice and jumping into the unknown, instead of staying stuck in the muck, she unlocked a path to joy, freedom, and adventure. We don’t need to know all the answers before we begin, only trust that it may lead to something even better than we could have possibly imagined.

So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
Yes and no. Both publicly and privately, I strive to be joyful, grateful, and conscious. I’ve loved to dance since I was a teenager, and I often incorporate that energy into my reels because I enjoy being authentically me. I see reels as yet another wonderful form of self-expression and a visual diary of my life’s journey. And if I can make someone else smile as well, and perhaps inspire them in some way, that’s pure magic! We are living in dark times right now, and I believe it’s my job to help shine the light of hope, love and positivity. That’s the public me.

The private me is more complex. I’m a Cancer and thus a very emotional soul. For sure I cry a lot. Tears are yet another form of water, this time the kind that offers cleansing, release and healing. I cry for humanity, acutely aware of what is going on in both our country and our world. I also cry in gratitude for the ways I’m evolving, then find myself crying in frustration for the ways I still sometimes loop backwards and go unconscious. I’m a creator, a thinker, and a seeker, and I require lots of quiet time alone. My underlying currents are sometimes raw, other times ethereal, and most certainly woven into my art. So, the public me is true, but never the whole story. Just like the moon’s reflection on water, it’s a glimpse of something deeper.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
I would like to be remembered this way …

She had the heart and soul of an artist, and believed in the magic of love. She was an avid traveler, and lived many places, most often with a beautiful view. Considering herself lucky, perhaps it was more that beauty seemed to find her. She never closed the blinds, preferring to wake with the sunrise. And in the evenings, she kept watch for the moon.

Her home was filled with her art, along with pearls, mermaids, crystals, and lights, and she needed little more to be happy. Except of course her tools to create, and maybe some dark chocolate! She laughed easily with a laugh you’d know anywhere. When she painted, she lost herself completely, pouring her emotions into color until they softened and transformed. She cherished deep conversations with those she loved. And she never gave up.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @artbylindaqueally
• Facebook: Linda Queally, Art by Linda Queally